Now It's Easier Being Green

Business

Preserved Botanicals Uses A Special Process To Keep Foliage Bright And Then Adds Silk Flowers.

December 20, 2000|By Elira Ben-Avari, Sentinel Correspondent

MOUNT DORA -- Preserved Botanicals provides a variety of options for those who like having a house full of plants, but don't have the interest or time to tend to them.

For 13 years, the company has been producing greenery that never has to be watered. Florida greenery such as asparagus fern, tree fern, plumosus, ming fern and palmetto fronds are dipped into a special mix of chemicals, dried, then dyed back to their original colors.

"It is phenomenal," said product manager Seavey Meriwether, who has been with the company for 11 years. "Most people can't tell the difference between our product and fresh foliage."

"We go through well over 150,000 pounds of Frazier fir each year," company President Jeff Dokkestul said.

He and his father-in-law, Dave Hauge, created the patented preservation process. Now their products are sold all over the world from their 57,000-square-foot building. The facility was once a Sunny Delight factory until Preserved Botanicals took it over about five years ago.

"We used to deal with the retail market and sold a lot of the products in craft stores,'' Dokkestul said. "But now we are creating a finished line of products.''

The finished products are flower arrangements using preserved greenery and high-quality silk flowers in beautiful vases and containers. The new line is being sold to interior decorators, design and furniture stores, and decor stores.

"This is really brand-new," Dokkestul said. "We have never promoted the product in this way before, but it is going really well."

Preserved Botanicals also creates flower arrangements with a product called Still Water, a clear resin that gives the illusion of water in glass vases.

After the arrangements are made, the extra cuttings are saved and sold to make potpourri.

"We don't waste much here," Meriwether said.

Meriwether said Hauge does most of the design work for the arrangements, and gets help from a couple of the company's 18 employees.

"Many of our silks come from China and look amazing with the foliage," Meriwether said. "A lot of the design work is trial-and-error. I've tried for years to do an arrangement, but mine don't look so good, so we leave the creative part up to Dave. He really knows what he's doing."

The arrangements are shipped after they are placed in large pallet containers, which are about the size of phone booths, so they can arrive at their worldwide destinations in the same condition as when they left Mount Dora.